Light vanilla sweetness with a dry chocolate malt, not much else but not offensive. I get some brownie batter later as the vanilla becomes more prominent. Typical Leinenkugels beer with significant weakness but decent taste.

Working on my second 12 oz bottle poured into a glass. The beer is more chocolate tasting than vanilla honestly, with hints of coffee. Has a malty sweetness that drowns out any alcohol taste. But at 6% it warms you up. I bought it because I have to scoop snow today, so I thought I'd buy this Snowdrift Vanilla Porter to help me out. :-)

I have never known Leinenkugel to make a bad beer, and this is no exception. However there are probably better options for porter/stout beer fans. So I gave it a 3.75 all around. If this was a beer someone homebrewed, it would be incredible, but I expect more from large breweries.

Appearance: Pours a very pretty, completely opaque, pitch-black color with a half of a finger of caramel-colored head that quickly dissolved into a thin lacing of foam that almost completely covered the top of the beer.

Aroma: Some roasted malt, notes of dark bread, a little smoke, some caramel, but nowhere near as much vanilla as I was expecting. A little disappointing.

Taste: A little disappointing here too. Some nice roasted malt flavors, accented with just a touch of smoke, followed by some caramel-like sweetness and just a faint touch of vanilla, but not enough in my opinion, especially, as it’s billed as a vanilla porter. No presence of hops.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied to slightly chewy, and pretty smooth as it’s got very little carbonation. With an ABV of 6.0%, there is no presence of alcohol on the palate.

Overall: As I said above, this beer is a little disappointing, in that there is nowhere near the amount of vanilla present that I believe there should be. As a regular porter, it’s pretty decent, possessing some good roasted malt and slight smoke flavors balanced with some nice caramel-like sweetness, but as its advertised as a vanilla porter, and because it has very little vanilla in it, I find it to be very disappointing. If I’m in the mood for a vanilla porter, I’ll grab either the one made by Breckenridge or Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea, both of which are infinitely better beers.